Average Doom/Death - 70%

Now this album is notably different from the band’s earlier efforts. While earlier they used to compose 4-8 minutes songs overflowing with stunning riffs, here they’ve increased the regular doom influence of their music beyond a likeable limit. Not that it is bad music; it’s just not at par with their other stuff. Unfortunately, this was the album I heard first. Naturally, I never bothered to dig deep in until a friend told me how much talent these guys actually had.

Death metal in the vein Bolt Thrower and Grave was what they used to play but doom in the vein of Draconian and My Dying Bride is what we have here, only not as good. The number of actual recognizable riffs is terribly low. Atmosphere is what the band has probably aimed for and depends on, making the music unchallenging and lesser creative. Soloing is non-existent and so are the tempo shifts. All songs as a result sound similar and repetitive. Although there are moments after which speed could have been introduced, for some reason they choose not to. A common feature of albums with such formats is that the guitars are accompanied by heavy keyboard overtones, which brings me to the album’s next drawback, their absence.

The album might get good marks for what it is supposed to be, but when it comes to talent & originality, I think it fails, unlike their earlier albums. Get the first three albums first, this one the last.